Central Asia: Region's countries need support for refugees

ISLAMABAD, 18 September (IRIN) - Thousands
of refugees are reported to be massing on the borders of Central Asian
countries, prompted by fears of possible US action against Afghanistan
in response to last Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
A leading expert on Afghanistan has
warned that Central Asian countries, all of which have now closed their
borders, need external support to enable them to help Afghans fleeing their
homeland.

"They [Central Asian countries]
are all deeply in need, and it's the responsibility of the donor countries
to make it possible for those countries to welcome and help refugees by
providing not only support directly for the refugees but also for those
countries," Barnett Rubin, Director of Studies, Center on International
Cooperation, New York University told IRIN on Monday.

Rubin added that the international community
would have to "find a way to care" for these refugees as all
international humanitarian workers had left Afghanistan. "It will
be much harder, if not impossible, to sustain those very vital programmes
that were keeping some people alive," he said.

"USAID is now casting about for
ways to assist people, but it's going to be very, very difficult. So we
could be looking at an extremely disastrous humanitarian situation,"
Rubin said.

Pakistan officially closed its border
with Afghanistan on Monday, fearing an influx of Afghans into the country,
which already hosts more than 2 million Afghan refugees. Up to 7,000 Afghans
are said to be stranded at border crossing points located in southwestern
Pakistan and the North West Frontier Province.

In Tajikistan there are already between
12,000 and 16,000 Afghan refugees, and the government is not prepared to
take any more. The majority have been settled in the capital, Dushanbe.
Many are said to be senior representatives of previous Afghan governments
and heads of local authorities, who were educated in the former Soviet
Union.

Fearing a huge influx of refugees in
poor condition into Tajikistan, the chairman of the lower chamber of the
Tajik parliament's international affairs committee, Ibrohim Usmonov, gave
the example of 10,000 refugees stranded on flood plains of the Pyandzh
river on the Tajik-Afghan border since last year. "The humanitarian
situation on the plains is very poor, and the refugees have great difficulties
in getting access to food and medicine. This situation could worsen and
result in great loss of life if there are military strikes against Afghanistan,"
he warned.

Afghan refugees living in Dushanbe are
also seriously concerned over the humanitarian situation in their homeland,
and said refugees would not be welcomed by the Dushanbe authorities. "Afghan
refugees living in Tajikistan are not in a position to help our brothers
and compatriots who may pour in. The economy of Tajikistan itself has not
got stronger yet after the civil conflict, and only the international community
can support Afghan refugees," a 29 year-old Afghan refugee, Ahmad
Saleh, who has been living in Tajikistan for three years, said.

With the humanitarian situation worsening
in Afghanistan, Tajik officials say they oppose any attack on Afghanistan,
and stress that it could impinge on neighbouring countries.

Expressing condolences for last week's
tragic events, Usmonov told IRIN: "I consider that the US doesn't
have the right to launch an attack on Afghanistan. Otherwise it will be
the same terrorist act [as last Tuesday], but on the part of the US, and
it will make our situation worse."

The government in Dushanbe has taken
precautions against any infiltration of Taliban fighters along its border.
An AFP report said Tajik armed forces were placed on alert on Monday following
reports that 5,000 Taliban militia had approached the common border.

Condemning the attacks on the US, Iran
closed its border at the weekend to block a potentially huge influx of
refugees. The country hosts 2.5 million Afghan refugees - one of the largest
refugee communities in the world - and says it cannot cope with the extra
burden. Recently, the government in Tehran took steps to reduce the
number of Afghans in the country by imposing a fine on employers found
to have Afghans working for them.

In Krygyzstan, President Askar Akayev
sent a message of condolence to US President George W. Bush, strongly condemning
the attack, while security measures were upgraded in major public buildings
and around embassies. The US Embassy in Bishkek issued a warning to its
citizens, asking them to stay at home and avoid travelling to the south
of the country, where pro-Islamic movements are known to operate.

The Afghan refugee community, estimated
at 1,500 and concentrated in Bishkek, is divided by fear and hope, as one
of its members, Majid Qiyam, told IRIN on Tuesday. "If this is the
last war to be fought for Afghanistan, we support it. But we ask the US
to be very careful and target only military bases and Taliban centres.
We don't want innocent Afghan civilians to die again."

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